Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Burning Bondholders – Sinn Fein were Right

Sinn Fein candidate for Wicklow East Carlow Councillor John Brady has said the party’s stance on burning bondholders in the wake of the financial collapse has been shown to have been correct:

“The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) told the Government in March 2011 that €9 billion of the people's money would be saved by imposing losses on senior debt holders at Irish banks. Written evidence provided to the banking inquiry shows the NTMA had advised the government to follow this path, but this advice was inexplicably ignored.”

Councillor Brady went on to say that accusations at the time that his party were ‘economically illiterate’ have now been shown to be nothing more than juvenile taunts with no basis in fact:
“At the time, we pleaded with the government on behalf of citizens to consider burning some of the bondholders to help ward off the worst consequences of the crisis. Fine Gael and Labour ignored us in the same dismissive and arrogant fashion they ignored the NTMA. They sneered at our proposals claiming they were the stuff of fantasy. However, now it has been confirmed that we were correct all along; the government effectively through away 9 billion euro of tax payers money.”

Councillor Brady concluded by pointing out that the Irish people have suffered needlessly due to the stubbornness, arrogance and economic infirmity of this government:

“Nobody needs to be reminded of the suffering so many people have had to endure during the term of this government. Fine Gael and Labour refused to listen to the NTMA or Sinn Fein in order to save face. They could not publicly accept that they were wrong and Sinn Fein was right. As a result, the country is worse off to the tune of nine billion euro. How many homes would that build? How many extra doctors and nurses could we have employed? How many new hospital beds could have been opened and how many new jobs could have been created? If there was ever a reason to get rid of the Fine Gael/ Labour government, this should be enough to convince anyone.”